Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, CHORUS, by WILLIAM ALEXANDER PERCY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CHORUS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Surely in no benignant mood
Last Line: The disenchanted ledges of old age.
Subject(s): Aging; Goddesses & Gods; Life; Mythology; Youth


Surely in no benignant mood
The gods have fashioned us, but craftily
To send us homing to the sod
Wise only in our own futility.

With hyancinthine brows of youth,
We enter life as to a festival;
But, ere the feast is spread, the gods
Snatch back the wine, the song, the coronal.

And, lusterless, we turn, afraid,
Turn to the sole vouchsafed heritage,
And in the shaken darkness clutch
The disenchanted ledges of old age.





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